Sante! France welcomes start of Beaujolais Nouveau wine season

Made from Gamay grapes, the red wine is the most popular vin de primeur - wines that regulations allow to be sold in the same year the grapes are harvested. French law requires that the wine not be released for sale until 12:01 a.m. on the third Thursday each November.

“It is important, yes, we taste it. I am not saying we are going to buy it every day but today, we do. It is important,” Sebastian Viry, who was sampling the wine in a Paris cafe on Thursday, told Reuters.

Although sales have been declining for 15 years, 22.5 million bottles were sold worldwide in 2016, down from 25.7 millions in 2015.